A glimpse of the Radeon 9700

[HAL9000]

Just finished reading the article at Tomshardware and when the Radeon 9700 is released, it should be interesting. I found this paragraph a jaw dropper;

Here are a few numbers for those of you who can't wait. The 3DMark2001SE score of GeForce4 Ti4600 was 11,400, while Radeon 9700, with its young driver, scored 14,000. Once 4x FSAA and 8x anisotropic filtering was used, the scores changed quite significantly. GeForce4 Ti4600 was able to get a mere 4500 points, while Radeon 9700 scored 10,000 points, thus, more than twice the points of the competitor from NVIDIA.

[Texuspete00]

this launch might cause the excitement the parhelia was supposed to. i'll have to wait and see. I'm starting to worry about how there only putting out a few now, hope the thing isn't $500

[HAL9000]

Well, it ain't gonna be cheap I'm sure. Just like anything else, the top of the line unit is gonna require deep pockets. I'm an AIW fan and would love to have the 8500 version, but until it comes down, I'm maxed at the 7500.

[pam123]

Price for the 9700:$ 399.00 msrp
" 9000 pro: $149.00 ( with 128mb ram )
" 9000 : $109.00 ( with 64mb ram )
The 9000 pro is said to come with 64mb of ram as well but I haven't seen the price for that.

[cobra]

I'll have to see some more reviews, anadtech (yuck) reviewed the parhelia, and it scored like "crapola", so I am not expecting much more from the 9700, and being developed in the same time frame, if those #'s you posted are the real deal, look out nvidia, someones about to spank your arse.

[pam123]

I got the prices off of Tom's Hardware.

[HAL9000]

Keep in mind too Cobra, Matrox has always sucked at 3D, but in comparisons of 2D, they're tops. The benchmarks are right of Tom's Hardware and if the prices are reflecting any accuracy, you're right, nVidia has some SERIOUS competition with the 9700.

[cobra]

Just read anands review, seems to be right on par with Toms...
Nvidia, seems like you are on the ropes.....
Good job ATI

[MSIuser]

Well, I'm an AMD fan, and personally I'm gonna have my GF4 4400 for a long while, and if the 9700 comes out and is way better than the GF4 it is only to be expected. I would love to see it though, about time Nvidia had some REAL competition. The graphics industry moves so fast i feel nvidia may have rushed the GF4. they seem to be doing more for the gaming industry though, I am just after reading an article on a new gaming language that nvidia and microsoft has created, to make it easier for games developers to use the new pixel and vertex shaders. Sadly it will probably be a few years before we see the results.

Just my humble thoughts!

[tigstah]

i'm not convinced yet.....as far as i'm concerned the proof is in the pudding. i am constantly upgrading my pc's i want end user proof that this new card from ati is the real deal.....

[Furius92]

Keep in mind, those scores are using some of the earliest sets of drivers for it. You all know how the first release ATI drivers are...

It would be great if nVidia really took a good hit from this, and two to three weeks after release of the Radeon 9700 it will fall to around $350. And ATI has always implemented their FSAA and anistropic filtering with less of an impact on FPS than nVidia... over twice their score with all those things on. Now, how does the Radeon 9000 (Pro and non) compare to the Radeon 8500?

[TimPoet]

This babe is a smokin' video card. Too bad I'm not a top end user. But it will drive down the prices for the G4's and ATI's I bet....

[Texuspete00]

check the review on anand tech guys, much better than the tom's one. Tom only talks of how good, with the only numbers being 3d mark scores. Anand's got the cards compared with a GF4 being a 1 and scores for ati acorrdingly (1.5+ in some cases). tigstah- the prove may be here!

[Texuspete00]

sorry i can't smell- i mean spell

[HAL9000]

1.5 is a very commanding lead, and on early drivers too.

[DJA_ILL]

'nuff said.

[Spyda]

but while they keep on advancing and advancing, its getting stupid, they will get faster, more memory, and more expensive all the time, bettering each other every time, when 128MB or video memory is totally unneccesary at the moment, it will be good for years

[MSIuser]

Don't forget though that they aren't really getting more expensive. Well OK they are, but that's same in all areas of technology and graphics industry is the one advancing the quickest. It would be nice to see a bit of competition, as long as I have the card that's winning!

[pam123]

More news: there's going to be a Radeon 9500 by the 4Q.
I won't be buying the $399.00 card for myself but if the price for the 9500 is about $250.00 it could be on my shopping list.

[Furius92]

I think the 9500 will have slightly lower core clock speed and RAM clock speed. Anyone see those like 250% gains over the Geforce 4 Ti 4600 at Anandtech? The Radeon 9700 got 2.5 or so and the GF4 Ti got 1, of course. I think it might have been on some of the anistropic filtering tests, which ATI always kicks nVidia's arse in.

[TimPoet]

Originally posted by Spyda but while they keep on advancing and advancing, its getting stupid, they will get faster, more memory, and more expensive all the time, bettering each other every time, when 128MB or video memory is totally unneccesary at the moment, it will be good for years

I think it might seem stupid for the moment. But that may be because we are just on the bottom of the performance curve. I mean, all the cars built the first twenty years after the Model T came out, probably got nothing, comfortwise, on our lowest end cars today. Yet each one may have seemed a great improvement on the next.
The Parhelion and the new ATI are not just going for speed, but for quality of the pics. Especially in AA.
Gamers will all be playing without the hassle of jerky, jagged edged visuals because of this wild race we are seeing now. Sure in the small pic it looks crazy, but in the big one it makes sense to me.

[Furius92]

Supposedly the Radeon 8500 will outperform both the Radeon 9000 and 9000 Pro. Something to do with the amount of texture processors or something per pipeline. Looks like I better grab my Radeon 8500 fast, since it is going to be phased out.